


Touch of Earth

by FireEye



Category: Unavowed (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:54:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24481591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/pseuds/FireEye
Summary: F!Bartender Background.  Dramatic retelling of leaving Logan behind in the final mission.  ...and also aquestionmarkI've had ever since that part of the game regarding summoning the ba jiao gui to take care of ghosts in the shadow-realm.
Relationships: Logan Brown/ The Protagonist (Unavowed)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Touch of Earth

The reality of it hit him with the impact of a subway train.

 _Jonah_. 

Sammy, too.

They hadn’t fully crossed over, they were just... _trapped_.

Here.

In this place.

All this time, when he had _given up_ holding séances at the bar to find them. To make absolutely sure. They were _still_ _here_.

Logan couldn’t blame them for being upset. For being _angry_.

Misdirected or not.

KayKay clung to his arm, goosebumps raising where her fingers partially disappeared into his skin. It was for comfort more than anything, but in that moment he wasn’t sure if it was for _her_ sake or for _his_. They’d both lost Jonah, and he’d lost Sammy... lost them _both_...

 _Even if_....

Logan didn’t look down.

He _couldn’t_.

He couldn’t tear his gaze away from his brother’s dead eyes.

“Jonah... C’mon, man...”

Whatever Melkhiresa was trying to summon with that spell to fix this, he wished she’d do it faster. It might’ve been irrational, and it wasn’t fair on her – she was new to this, after all.

Logan stood between them, trying to keep their attention off the others, most of all off _her_. She wasn’t the one who had murdered them. All she’d ever done was try to make it right.

But the specters of their past shrieked for the unrighteous death that had been inflicted on them. Malevolence rolled off the spirits like a thunderstorm... a heavy pressure, boiling over, threatening to shear and crack. _So much pain,_ the cumulative result of which was lash out and share their agony with the living.

The power behind him surged and ebbed, and Logan chanced looking back.

Just in time to see the pale aura of energy surrounding Melkhiresa dissipate into nothing, and the glow fade from her eyes.

The expression on her face was _horrified_.

Worse than the handful of moments before, when the victims of her body’s past crimes manifested, seemingly out of _nowhere_.

“I can’t...” she said. Her gaze was on the floor, and she glanced about it as though looking for an answer. Or an escape. “The _ba jiao gui_... she can... she can help, but...”

Vicki was staring at the ghosts. Or what she could see of them. Eli was staring at Melkhiresa. Logan glanced back, at the distorted Halloween _horror_ show of his dead brother and his dead friend, and risked putting his attention on Melkhiresa.

“What is it?” Eli asked, almost imperceptivity gentle under the screaming of the ghouls.

“If I summon her here,” Melkhiresa tried again, fixing her gaze on Logan, “she can _help_ , but it means... eating them... _destroying_ them.”

KayKay’s fingers dug a little deeper into his arm, and Logan understood the implications before Melkhiresa had even finished talking. It meant _death_. Of the _dead_.

 _Nonexistence_.

“I can’t do that to them, it’s not _their_ fault.”

Melkhiresa sounded panicked. At a loss. Logan’s heart _ached_ in sympathy – for her, for them, maybe for himself.

He swallowed his misgivings.

“No, it’s okay,” he told her. “I get it.”

“I’ll stay here and try to talk some sense into them.” He wrapped an arm around KayKay’s shoulders. Not that he could touch her, but that didn’t stop him from doing it. Glancing down, he nodded to her. “Looks like you’re up.”

The little ghost’s head bobbed as she returned the nod. She ran in a specific pattern around him – and a couple of times straight _through_ him, which even given the he gravity of the situation he was all but certain was just to mess with him, _personally_ – which drew the circle. Then KayKay closed her eyes, extending her hand in the same pose of a video game character casting a spell.

The circle fluttered into existence around him, and the intensity of the ghost’s wrath waned in the space within it. Still palpable, but closer to a humid summer breeze.

With a tight smile, he turned to the others. Eli’s subtly impressed expression wasn’t lost on him. Nor was Vicki’s _completely out of her element, but trying and for the most part succeeding to keep her cool_ stance as she kept her eyes on the threat. Melkhiresa only stared, guilt and concern playing across her face.

“Don’t worry about me; I’ll be safe for a while,” he told them. He tried not to think of how that might’ve been even safer than they would be... provided they did in fact manage to come back for him. “Get going.”

They didn’t.

Not at first.

Melkhiresa didn’t move, and so neither did Eli. Vicki did, but didn’t move _far_.

When Melkhiresa _did_ move, it was to fling herself into the circle with him, _straight_ _into his arms_ , in an embrace that surprised him. Tight, _desperate_. In that instant, he couldn’t tell if she was seeking comfort, or trying to share it.

“I’m sorry,” she rambled, “I’m so sorry, for Jonah, for Sammy, for _everything_ , I-...”

“It _wasn’t_ you,” he reminded her.

“I know, but I... it’s my fault, and I was _there_ and I _couldn’t_...”

“ _Shhh_...”

It could be instinctive.

Caring about someone.

Though he might’ve learned some of it from her. ...or... from _her_.

The thought soured in his chest, and he hugged Melkhiresa tighter. She surprised him again, tilting her face to kiss his cheek before settling in his arms.

“ _Ugh_ ,” KayKay protested, the way any given ten year old was liable to do.

“We’ll be back,” Melkhiresa whispered. There was a hitch in her throat as she promised, “I’ll be back.”

“I know you will.”

She lingered, just a few moments longer.

Then she slid away.

And Logan breathed out.

He was mindful of their escape, of Melkhiresa giving what she could see of Sammy and Jonah a wide berth, and the others following her footsteps.

Leaving just him.

Him and two pissed off ghosts.

“I think she likes you.”

And KayKay.

 _And_ KayKay’s singsong, most _know-it-all_ voice.

“You think?”

She stuck out her tongue.

“Alright you two,” Logan said, shifting his full attention to the ghosts. “Let’s talk about this, huh?”

**Author's Note:**

> And finally, Logan. :D
> 
> ...yeah, I kinda doubt that's what was meant to be going on with the ba jiao gui, but at the same time I'm not really sure what else she might do to the ghosts in that part, maybe teleport them or something, but _considering_ how vague it does make me a little... _D:_ at summoning her to take care of the problem. XD
> 
> But with that, please accept all these player character romance feels. :)


End file.
